Many years ago, I had the pleasure of doing some BSAC courses with an SBS instructor at Fort Bovisand. It was a shock to my system after only having exposure to the PADI system (as OW and AOW diver).
In the space of the first week...I went from feeling 'excellently capable' to understanding that I would be unlikely to cope with any real emergency.
I had simular experiences when I entered tech training and, later, again when I started technical exploration of shipwrecks.
I love being 'humbled' on a training course. It tells me I am getting value for my money and really developing myself. I just feel pity for those people who avoid learning those lessons because their egos cannot cope with it.
baptism of fire then
i know an ex sbs diver, he's a brilliant instructor, i also like their attitude best described as the difference between an amateur & professional musician; an amateur practices till he gets it right, a professional practices till he can't get it wrong. my friend's most trying time was not strangling someone who spent a lot of time diving the internet & enjoyed telling everyone else they had it wrong.i get really frustrated by training courses where i know more than the instructor and sometimes you just have to sit through them:depressed: i remember one course where the instructor turned up with pristine equipment and then started to talk the most utter rubbish, he'd read the book, never done it for real & didn't really understand what he was talking about. the most recent course i did i really struggled, there was just so much to learn in a limited time, i had to do some qualifying dives with an instructor over the course of the next few weeks and i really enjoyed those because everything started to gel together and make sense that's the way they designed the course.
